1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved contact body for use in a liquid and gas contact apparatus, such as a cooling system, and in particular, to structures and methods for supporting vertically-mounted contact bodies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Contact bodies or packings for gas and liquid contact apparatuses such as, for example, cooling towers, have been proposed. Such contact bodies have been formed from adjacent sheets of corrugated material. The corrugated sheets are typically skew-oriented such that their ridges or crests contact each other, thereby forming passages or channels between the sheets. These channels form passages having continuously varying widths, and thereby repeatedly change the directions of the gas and liquid flowing through the body. Such corrugated material is known as cross-corrugated fill. This arrangement of corrugations of adjoining sheets advantageously results in turbulent flow of the gaseous medium, which provides adequate heat exchange rates. Examples of such contact bodies can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,242,627, 5,143,658, 5,124,086; 5,112,538; 5,057,251 and 3,862,280. This type of contact body has been highly successful in use and is generally accepted and employed as a cooling tower or evaporative cooling medium, where water is introduced over it as air is blown therethrough. Preferably, such contact bodies are oriented vertically, so that fluid can flow downward through the cross-corrugated fill under the influence of gravity. However, if such a body is supported from the bottom, so that body presses downward, the body, because of the relatively low stiffness of the cross-corrugated fill, has a tendency to bow or buckle. Moreover, such sagging or buckling is most pronounced during operation of the cooling device, since during operation, the weight of the water passing through the cross-corrugated fill adds to the compressive load on the fill that causes sagging and buckling. Thus, evaporative pad and fan cooling systems are very expensive to install because of the need for complex systems for supporting the top and bottom of each pad. Also, in the case of thin cooling pads, center supports may be required in order to keep the pads from slumping and bowing out of the other supports. Moreover, it may be necessary to provide stiffeners in the body, or supports along the body. All of these devices will increase significantly the weight, cost and complexity of the apparatus.